Revolt in Imperial China
that began with the dissatisfaction of the handling of a railway
crisis, in which the Qing government announced that it would
nationalize certain railway lines, that were previously paid for by
local private investors. This led to a massive strike as well as
rallies, which escalated and caused revolutionary groups to rise up
against Qing government officials. Preparing for a revolt, an
accidental explosion that wounded an insurgent and alerted the Qing
government, triggered a rebellion in the city of Wuchang (武昌) on 10
October 1911, in which sympathizers of the revolutionaries within
the New Army, i.e. the modernized Qin Army founded in 1895 and
trained and equipped according to Western standards, staged a coup against their own authorities. The
uprising served as a catalyst to the 1911
Xinhai
(Hsin-Hai)
Revolution, which is named after
the year it occurred in (辛亥),
i.e. the 8th (辛) of the
Ten Celestial Stems and the last (亥) of the
Twelve
Terrestrial Branches according to the Chinese calendar. The events
ultimately led to the collapse of
the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China,
which was founded on 1 January 1912 in Nanjing,
and led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen (fig.)
as the provisional president of
the republic (fig.). See
also CHINESE
CALENDAR.
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